>> a couple good friends here. and johnson. and i told the president, next game i have him. i may weigh more but i could jump. >> i could sort of hear that. could you hear that, julie? good morning, everyone. it is wednesday, february 26th. we're in washington and it is snowing. >> again. >> and more snow is on the way. anyhow, with us "new york times" reporters jeremy pierce. did you have an ambien? >> no, i have to be like you.

>> cokie roberts is with us and joe hunt. in new york it goes on, mike barnicle. -- the guys are in new york. well, there's al. >> and jerry. >> mika! >> that was awkward. i'm sorry. well, okay. can we start this over? so you heard joe biden? >> i actually didn't hear him. >> then i'll tell you all about it, cokie. he was touting his basketball skills, despite being a white boy. he was speaking at black history month and referencing sacramento mayor kevin johnson. while we're on the topic of the vieft, we was also in new york and he sad down with the ladies of the view and talking about

his future political ambitions. this you'll be able to hear. >> i do not expect you to come on this program and announce that you're going to run for president. i won't object if you want to. do you want to? >> i'll tell you what, make you a deal. if you stick around, i will announce my decision with you. >> i'm not sure that's a deal i can accept. if hillary does not run, will you -- you have said that if she runs for president, you will not run. >> no, i haven't. >> then tell me what you said. >> the only reason to run for president of the united states is if you truly believe you're in a better position to do what's most needed in the country. whether she runs or not will not affect my decision. >> cokie and al? >> i love joe biden but that's dead wrong. if hillary clinton runs, 10-1 he does not run. if hillary clinton does not run and his health is good, 4-1 that

he does run. >> i think he's dying to run. so he's just waiting to see what happens. i think he's very easy to run. >> mike barnicle? >> you're talking about the greatest vice president in the history of western civilization, right? >> joe biden. we love joe biden. i agree with a blend of what al and cokie just said. i think the vice president really would like and enjoy and be very happy running for president of the united states he's obviously going to be tempered by what hillary clinton chooses to do on a number of fronts, fund-raising ability. he would like to run but i bet the odds he would not run. >> don't you get the sense talking about the possibility behind that big smile he resents a little bit that it's a forgone conclusion that hillary clinton would be the nominee for democrat. he's saying in his own way, hey, man, i'm vice president, i should get a shot at this if i

want it. >> anyone seeing what i do, julie? >> sure. the thing we have too remember about what joe biden is doing here, if you're a vice president in a second term and you're not possibly talking about running for president, then you're basically irrelevant. there's some strategy to keep him in the spotlight. >> he has been effective, hasn't he been, working with congress in. >> he's certainly been the president's deal maker. >> and the last big one that he attempted to negotiate over gun control, of course, fell apart. but certainly he has played that role in the past and has been pretty effective. >> he's been the guy that's actually gone there, let's put it that way. >> he's man the main player on ukraine, talked to yanukovych nine times.

>> i like him. >> well, we've definitely squeezed that one for what it's worth. i'll tell you, i think that he's underestimated in some ways because of his jovial personality and his great sense of humor. but he's been a player for decades. >> that's absolutely right. he absolutely has been. you're right, if he were sit hearing with us, we'd all be having a good time with him. >> yeah. >> that is his strength and in some way his weakness. >> you really could argue, though, that washington needs someone you want to hang out with. >> and there's no one in washington you'd rather have a beer with than joe biden. >> let me correct that -- if need be he would have one. he's got a granddaughter that's a fabulous basketball player. >> fantastic.

let's get to our other big story. afghanistan. as the "new york times" describes it, the relationship between president obama and afghan president hamid karzai is for all intents and purposes over. in their first conversation since june of last year, the president obama said the u.s. is preparing for a full withdrawal of american forces by the end of 2014, reflecting karzai's refusal to sign a long-term peace agreement. elections are scheduled to take place in april. julie, the issue here, depending on what they do, will be getting all the infrastructure out, which will take two years. >> the longer you wait to make

the ultimate decision, whether it's a full withdrawal, the riskier and more expensive it becomes. that factors into the decision. there's a slight difference the pentagon and the white house on this. the pentagon strongly supports keeping 10,000 troops in afghanistan. some in the white house look at the situation and say it's futile. why are we spending so much time and efforts trying to keep troops in a country when we're not sure they want us there. >> there are reasons to not pull out. all of the history is a big one and then there's the question of what the society becomes if we just rub an and particularly fo women. that is something that we've made all kinds of efforts to try to make the lives of women and girls of afghanistan better and protect them as the taliban

tries to take back over. i think to completely cut and run absolutely plays into the perception that you can't expect americans to stay and -- >> but we've been there a long time. >> i agree with cokie but here's the complication -- obviously karzai is totally and completely unreliable. there will be an election in april. it's not at all clear that's going to be a clear-cut election, we may go six, seven months with uncertainty, which makes it impossible to negotiate a pact to stay. >> mike barnicle, jump in. >> well, the phrase "cut and run," we have done anything but cut and run. we have been in afghanistan for 12 years. we have lost enormous amounts of our blood, more amounts of our treasure. we're dealing with a corrupt megalomaniac as president of afghanistan, someone who will

not deal with us on an honest basis each and every day of our existence there in afghanistan. it might be time for the president to answer the question what are we still doing there? >> well, i think that is the question at this point. given the fact that we're talking about a full withdrawal by 2014, what do you make of the fact that the relationship has broken down so badly? >> well, the relationship was broken down four years ago. four years ago karzai said he was open to balancing to the taliban side. this guy has never been a reliable leader. we said it in realtime in 2009 when the generals were asking the president to triple the number of troops. of course bob gates talked about it at length in his book. you can go back through and see how that went down. but nobody around the table, our table in 2009 could explain why we were staying in afghanistan. if you talk to every policy

leader, i remember richard holbrooke coming on. on camera he would say one thing but off camera he would say it's hopeless. on camera he'd say we can't cut and run, we can't leave afghanistan. you ask him why and they would never say because of afghanistan. they would say because of pakistan. george w. bush didn't pay enough attention to afghan san. we tripled the number of troops, poured in $2 billion and the face of al qaeda is radically different than it was in 2001 when it needed the caves of afghanistan to project its terror across the globe. it's time for americans to come home. in fact, it was time four years

ago. >> it makes sense. al, what we're looking at a couple of decisions that the president has to make and stick to. what are the chances that things unravel and we go back to the status quo, which seems to be a permanent presence. >> i don't think there will be a permanent presence. i don't disagree with much of anything that joe has said. so i'm not trying to play both sides here. but i do think having done what we did, whether it was right or not, just to suddenly leave i think creates all kinds of complication there is. i'm not realistic that staying there will produce a good outcome in a year or two. >> sal, help me out here. suddenly leaving? we've been there since 2001. there are kids now being shot at in afghanistan. define cutting and running and suddenly leaving. >> i'm not talking about cutting

and running. i'm talking about a transitional force. i doubt that's going to succeed. >> and to provide some security for the people who are there. there are all kinds of development workers there, people trying to work in the community in ways that do bring people up so that terrorism is diminished and to provide some security for those people makes a lot of sense. >> i guess those complications are exactly why hamid karzai still has some leverage, because it isn't as simple as getting out, which we all here now. but is there anybody at the table in washington or new york that thinks we should stay? i don't think i can find anybody. >> one of the arguments for staying is look at what happened in iraq, which is almost a mirror image of this. we tried to reach an agreement and we couldn't and things have spiralled out of control. the question is if do you have a

residual force? do you keep them for five years? if you keep a smaller force does that do anything to protect civilians, do counterterrorism, to train the afghan forces? >> and can you protect those forces? those are huge questions. pakistan is saying today we pull out and civil warren views temperature maybe civil war happens anyway but it's a mess. >> it is. we're going to revisit this subject but let's go to kentucky. the mid-term elections are still months away but democrats are not waying to pull out the big guns. former present was the last democrat to carry a state in a presidential election and is still popular in kentucky with close political ties to ellison's father.

here she is introducing the president. >> when we first learned at the end of this month that the president would be able to be here in kentucky this month, we were worried how in the heck in two weeks would we be able to reach out across the commonwealth, how would we be able to fill hundreds of seats, especially for a luncheon. [ laughter ] but as i look out today at this standing-room-only, sold-out crowd -- [ cheers and applause ] -- i think, i think it goes without saying that kentucky is clinton country! [ cheers and applause ] >> okay, joe. bill clinton's -- stop it! i just -- yeah. take it, just take it. i'm saying nothing. i'm just down the line the

reporter/journalist today. >> i think what's so fascinating about this, mika is the fact she's sitting there talking about the drawing power of a guy who was president, what, 12 years ago, however long ago. >> it's unbelievable. >> and yet the sitting president is not welcome in her state. >> stop it. >> based on -- no, i'm just -- she was asked by a reporter a couple of weeks ago about having barack obama come into kentucky and she said, oh, we don't need to have -- i don't need somebody else to come vouch for me. >> she said it to casey. and i think casey was goading her into saying it. that's what i think. >> this does actually show a problem that the obama administration has, not only we've been talking about arkansas, north carolina -- i've

always seen kentucky as a swing state. it's fascinating that barack obama is not welcome there and bill clinton gets a hero's welcome. >> it has been a swing state. mitch mcconnell cited the fact that he won in the same years that clinton won. it's also been a split ticket state. and i think that, you know, we know president obama is not popular in these southern states. i mean, he's got the base of the democratic party but he does not have swing voters and she's got to have those swing voters if she has any hope of winning in kentucky. >> al hunt, there's certain politicians that just always seem to win elections, regardless of what people say about them for five and a half years. and i'm talking about two different politicians in different parties right now. mitch mcconnell is one of those and the second is mary landreau,

who i always say win business 13 votes. what is it about mitch that makes him so tough that makes him seem like -- >> not only that but he's very unpopular. he's the toughest politician around, he'll spend gobs of money, he's relentless, he'll attack. i think it's possible his luck runs out, his charm runs out. charm and mitch mcconnell you don't usually associate together. i think he's going to have a tough time in the general. i don't think kentucky is a swing state anymore. west virginia, tennessee, kentucky kentucky, arkansas,

virginia, florida and north carolina are the swing states now. >> i don't know if democrats expect to win kentucky back. we'll see how things progress. there are certainly questions about how qualified the candidate grimes is, but when push comes to shove, i wouldn't be surprised to see them putting resources elsewhere. >> the room was packed, it was 1,200 people, president clinton spoke off the cuff for about 30 minutes about grimes' policies, as he took aim at mitch mcconnell over his opposition to obamacare. >> you know what in a sane verne people do when they have problems, with a good object of they fix the problems. the other choice is to just pout if you're not in -- if your party is not in the white house and make as many problems as can you, stop anything good from happening and if you can't stop it, at least bad mouth it and then when life being what it is

and all of us being imperfect as we are, when there's a problem, do everything you can to make sure the problem is never fixed. it may work in an election get everybody all torn up and upset and get everyone mad all the time, but it is a dumb way to run a country. >> let's bring in kasie hucasec. your take including bill clinton brought in? >> clinton was trying to lay out an argument and that's what was hanging over all of this. she was thrilled to have the former president. but if you want to listen to that comment that joe mentioned earlier, that she actually told us for our series "states of

play" about whether or not she'd want to have obama in town. >> you say you're an independent thinker. i want to ask you about president obama. would you want to to come down and campaign for you? >> i speak for myself and i doesn't need a surrogate to do that. i stand for myself and i disagree with the president on many platforms. >> and harry reed was asked if he'd want the president to come there and he said we have a president that can go everywhere and that's bill clinton. >> he was chafing at the bit to

get out there and now everybody wants him. >> he does love the process. willie geist. >> i wanted to throw out this "new york times" report, wondering allowed how difficult it might have been to get clinton to go to kentucky. paul begala said getting bill clinton on the campaign trail is like offering sugar to an ant, he doesn't think twice. >> someone who is not chomping at the bit to get on the campaign trail, it barack obama. if he think he's can hold democratic seats without being out there, he's okay that. >> and he's told democrats that, can you run as far away from me as you need to, i won't get in your way. i don't expect to be invited

because i'm not welcome. >> wow. >> bill clinton probably the best retail politician of our time. coming up on "morning joe," republican governor bobby jindal, jane harman, peter gammons and michio kaku. but first -- >> let it snow, let it snow. >> i feel sorry for you. i really do. i really do. >> everyone's like when is it going to end? when is it going to end? i keep joking and say april 1st. maybe that's right. >> no, it's not going to end. bill, take it away. >> yesterday it didn't stick too much on the pavement but today it's colder sorry be careful driving. delaware, even southern jersey around philly.

it's just a light snow, a dusting to an inch, it will be over by noon today. it is minus 10 in minneapolis right now. when you factor in the wind chill, it's like 100 times worse. even as far as st. louis with a negative wind chill. this is going to be day after day of this, right into the beginning of march. the good news is a big rain storm for california. we get two this week, one today and one on friday. so for your wednesday, that light snow in the mid-atlantic and light rain for our friends down along the warm gulf coast. you're watching "morning joe." ♪ i'm on my way to new orleans this morning, leaving out of nashville, tennessee ♪ your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup.

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. all right, let's take a look at the "morning papers." from our parade of papers, "the san jose mercury news." asiana airlines will pay $500,000 in fines related to the crash in san francisco last july. federal officials say the airline failed to provide family members of passengers with information in the days following the incident. some families did not hear from the company until five days after the crash. three people were killed, dozens injured when the plane hit a sea wall as it tried to land. joe. >> and from the "usa today," general motors is expanding its massive recall. the company says an ignition switch defect in some of its smaller cars is linked to 13 deaths. the latest models added to the recall are the saturn ions,

saturn sky and nearly 140 million vehicles are now under recall. >> good news in the battle over childhood obesity in "boston globe." obesity rates dropped from 14% to 8%. it's not all good news, though. one out three adults still dangerously overweight in the u.s. nearly one third of americans under the age 20 are obese. joe? >> and "houston chronicle," george w. bush is getting his own art exhibit. it will feature more than two dozen never-before-seen paintings. bush started painting since he left the white house and has painted everything from family portraits to landscapes and, m mika, a lot of former leaders

start painting. you go back through history and george bush is one of them. >> some of them are really good. i was confused at the bath tub one. i didn't get to see it long enough but these are incredible actually. >> no, i'm serious, a lot of people were laughing about it at the beginning. i'm looking forward to seeing them. >> the "san francisco chronicle," a couple found a pot of gold worth $10 million. the husband and wife stumbled upon gold coins in can buried on their property. experts call the discovery one of the greatest treasures ever uncovered in the u.s. they've actually not given their address because they're scared of more treasure hunters but

apparently they can use the money. it hysterical. >> barnicle just left to go dig around in his back yard. >> there's a different reason for that. >> let's go down to plit cole. mike -- politico. mike allen has the story. 12 years after the president leaves office, january 2013 in present's case, that deadline came and went, and we still haven't seen a lot of documents. what does hillary clinton, perhaps, have to fear in this case? >> willie, these documents include advice that the president asked for, communications between the president and the then first lady. and this poses some really tough choices, both for president

obama, because these are federal documents, who has some control over the release and the clintons who might not want to stir up some new scandal, new questions and if they keep blocking them, there will be questions about whether they're too secretive. there's about 33,000 of these documents that should have become available 12 years after president clinton left office, so back in january 2013. politico's josh kerrstein learned yesterday that 25,000 of these documents have been cleared by the white house for release. they didn't say when but sooner or later we're going to see a bunch of these documents. but there's another 8,000 of some of the president's most sensitive communications that are still being blocked and that both this president and the clintons are going to have to make some tough calls about. >> i guess the question is will

there be a court fight to get them out into the public? >> my question is it seems to me the law is the law and if it supposed to be released 12 years later, what's the justification for the white house and the clintons not releasing these documents? >> well, joe, as you know, presidents have a lot of discretion over these documents, but president obama when he was running said that he wanted to increase access to presidential documents. that's why it makes it so tough for him. the clintons are going to want to avoid an ugly legal fight -- >> but has the white house given any justification for going against the law, which says 12 years after the president leaves office, these papers are released? has there been any justification at all from the white house for this? >> they haven't. what they've said is we've cleared a bunch of them butch they haven't said why they're dragging their feet. can you read that full story at

politico.com. mike, thanks. >> thank you all. >> coming up, peter gam loons looking ahead to spring training. it's baseball time, everybody, and what to expect as we head toward opening day. "morning joe" sports is next. ♪ spread the word around, guess who's back in town ♪ y. up late. thinking up game-changing ideas, like this: dozens of tax free zones across new york state. move here. expand here. or start a new business here... and pay no taxes for 10 years. with new jobs, new opportunities and a new tax free plan. there's only one way for your business to go. up. find out if your business can qualify at start-upny.com but with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i had to do something. i saw my doctor. a blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age.

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now batting for the seattle mariners, number 22, robinson cano. >> now batting for the yankees, number 36, carlos beltran. >> now batting for the texas rangers, number 84, prince fielder. >> that was a spot by mlb network, previewing some of the biggest names in baseball who find themselves wearing new uniforms this year. we have the great analyst peter gammons. good morning. >> good morning. >> mike wants you to know he'll have the rv ready for the annual

trip. the new york yankees, they went back to the yankee way, signing big checks to get big names in town. >> well, the offense is going to be much better. it's actually amazing they did as well, because really they probably should have won about 75 based on their run differential. when you add mccann, ellsbury and beltran, that's a tremendous load of offense. there's questions about the infield defense but it's going to come down to tanaka being able to adjust to the united states. how sabathia gets stronger having lost 40 or 50 pounds and whether he can get back to what he was two or three years ago and i think roberts is going to be terrific closing.

it allful it's awfully hard following that act named rivera. >> and where does tanaka fit following with hideo nomo and some that have not worked out for teams. >> he's probably a notch below yu darvish. he hasn't spiched very well on less than six days' rest. when he starts to throw 93, 94 miles an hour his control has been a problem. how he adjusts to the strike zone of the united states and the hitters in the american league east is something no one in the yankees really knows. he'll be good and he'll give them innings. how great remains to be seen.

>> there's been one significant rule change over the winter and that's to try to prevent collisions at the plate, bust are posey-type injuries, things like that. as the rule plays out this spring and into the year, are you at all concerned that there is more danger to the runner than there is to the catcher? the catcher can still block the plate but the runner's hesitancy, it can cause significant leg injury. no? >> that's what the players are worried about. major league baseball said we're not smart enough to completely change rules. this is basically a three-year adjustment. it does eliminate the cheap shots where players try to wipe out catchers and injure them. sometimes a throw coming in in the outfield can hit a divot in the infield and the catcher has to react.

>> if the base runner has to do a quick move to go around the catcher or slide or hit the catcher's shin guards, that could end up with some sort of injury. i think there's some sort of concern about that and that's why they want the experimentation during spring training and see what happens during the season. i think it's a good thing that they've eliminated the cheap shot and many people intentionally trying to injure captures. but at the same time, it has to be really inherent and the umpires work hard at it. >> red sox defending champs. a couple questions. how do they stack up? can they compete? and who are some surprise teams that have done things in the off season that you like? >> i do think the red sox could repeat. they're skewing much younger with bogaerts at shortstop and jackie bradley in center field, as they keep bringing younger players in but they have to get the same kind of years out of lester, uehara and lackey as

they did last year. a team i'm really interested in watching is kansas city. but be pretty serious threats, especially if the tigers have any injury to their pitching staff. a team to watch is san diego. do i think the dodgers are truly the favorites in the west? of course. i think san diego with their improved pitching can be pretty interesting. they can hit. as soon as nobody knows it because in that ballpark, the ball doesn't go anywhere. >> i'm going to ask you to do something terrible. sits february 26. who is in the world series this year? >> tampa and los angeles. >> wow. you. >> like that call, mike? >> it's absolutely a good call. >> look at that payroll. >> tampa is an amazing story, joe madden with the tampa bay organization has done amazing.

>> if they make the world series, maybe they'll get a new stadium. >> yeah. >> always god network will hair more than 200 spring training games through march 30th. and on tomorrow show's, meryl davis and charlie white will join us. coming up, mika's must-read opinion pages. we'll be right back. ♪ it a beautiful day to let it get away ♪ [ doctor ] and in a clinical trial versus lipitor,

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house this morning as we get to the must-read opinion papers. "bobby jindal comes out swinging." jindal joined other chief executives in front of the white house after a meeting with the president. taking the microphone, bobby jindal said, among other things, that the obama economy is now the minimum wage academy and the white house is waving the white flag of surrender. it's amazing nobody fainted. governors are now in town to share blankies and not hurt feelings. they're supposed to be bipartisan-ish and leave the spleen venting to congress, bobby didn't get the membero. he has to be aggressive to convince the republican base

that he's a stand-up guy willing to jump in the ring with apollo creed. okay, so maybe with dannel malloy. i can't tell if that's a compliment or criticism? >> i think it's an observation. nicolle wallace remembered back when she was in the bush administration, cokie roberts, when everybody would be inside shaking hands and hugging and then go, hey, we have to go outside and may have to say a few tough things about you and they'd go out on the lawn and reed and pelosi would go out on the lawn and call him a war criminal. >> the difference is the

governor. that's a group of people who have been much less pragmatic, much less partisan. generally when they come to town, they don't have those moments because i don't want to hear them sing, thank goodness, so it was unusual to see a governor come out of the white house and attack the president. but kathleen is right, it's an indication he's on the campaign trail and part of the republican base. >> you know the fact that we're talking about jindal -- >> he's doesn't have a -- >> two months ago his name was not mentioned near the republican front-runners. so chris christie and the news cycle has created this opening

for jindal. this gop field is open. >> to your point, bobby jindal will be with us at the top of the hour. >> oh, good. >> yeah. and harry smith joins us on the exploding new marijuana market. that's on "morning joe." we'll be right back. ideo, three times zoom, and a twenty-megapixel sensor. it's got the brightest display, so i can see what i'm shooting -- even outdoors, and 4 mics that capture incredible sound. plus, it has apps like vine -- and free cloud storage. my new lumia icon is so great, even our wipeouts look amazing. ♪ honestly, i want to see you be brave ♪ ♪ it's where you email, yshop, even bank.e here, but are you too comfortable? these days crime can happen in a few keystrokes.

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welcome back, everybody. this is the moral outrage story of the day. the reporter who received attention for her creative reporting on bear safety, she's back in the headlines. she works at the affiliate in providence, rhode island. look. >> aprccording to experts, avoi direct eye contact with the bear, wave your arms, don't yell, stay quiet, unless the bear attacks, then scream and throw things at the back. if the bear attacks, curl up on your side, or lay on your stomach. above all, stay calm. >> cokie liked it. cokie loved it. >> i'm just horrified.

>> thomas, i know you have an update but can i just say something? she was mocking the new director, who gave her an absurd story. instead she went on the air and did the story. she's fantastic. i want to hire her. >> she's developed a name for herself with this off-beat style but it looks like some of her colleagues got tired of her act after her last one on the air. >> i don't dance and i don't sing but i do do gymnastics. i thought to the producers watching at hope tonight how about a news reporter that does the news walking on her hands. here in providence, julie tremel, nbc news, the night

team. >> she was fired for that report. apparently they did not like that kind of reporter. too much in your face. >> she's doing what most news directors want your reporters to do, which is exact like clowns and get ratings. >> perhaps she was too clownish. >> i like the self-indulgent style but apparently this might have been something that was the last nail in her coffin. >> she is mocking local news and i love her. let's have her on. alex? >> take heart because she's filling in tomorrow for bill karins, who wanted to do that. >> alex, can we book hersh please? >> we're on it. >> fly her to new york. >> we're on it. >> al hunt, you're leaving. thank you. >> it's good to see you. you look terrific and i love

your glasses. >> thank you very much. why are you leaving? my brother's coming on. i want you to see him. coming up, nbc's chuck todd joins the table. and we heard from governor malloy yesterday with his dust-up with governor bobby jindal. now governor jindal gives his side of the story. he joins us next on "morning joe." ♪ everything looks worse in black and white ♪

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it is the top of the hour. ooh, i like that graphic. julie pace, cokie roberts are still with us. oh, and chuck is joining us in a minute and governor bobby jindal will be here with us as well. let's start with governor jan brewer. >> isn't your entire family coming on, your brother, your mother? >> she hates my glasses. she has a book coming out. >> my glasses are from the dollar store. >> oh, cokie, i'm going to hook you up. >> cases and all.

>> so, joe, if i may, and this is not retribution for the other day, but i unbooked my father because ian's coming on and -- >> why would you unbook your father? >> you can't have the both of them? >> i didn't want them together. >> why? do they fight when they're together? >> do you remember the first time my dad was on with you? >> yeah. he called me "stunningly superficial." i remember that. >> anyhow, they might have different points of view about some of the foreign policy issues we're going to be discussing, so we will put them on separately. >> keep them separated, i got it. >> keep them separated, keep them separated. >> you don't want the family dinner table. >> plus we don't want the road kill. i have an update to the road

kill story. do you know the show "d.c. housewives"? >> i've never seen it. >> the deer she split with the farmer, it wasn't a farmer. it was d.c. housewife mary's father and she gave them a check that bounced. >> you're talking in shorthand. mrs. brzezinski fed road kit to pamela harriman and pamela harriman spit it out. mika. >> governor jindal is feeling more pressure about the bill that would deny services to gay and lesbian customers by

asserting their beliefs. they have urged governor brewer to veto the bill. arizona is slighted to host the next super bowl and while the nfl has not said they will move the game if it becomes law, the league has said "our policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation. governor brewer has until

saturday to veto the bill. hough, just a few hours ago she tweeted "i assure you, as always, i will do the right thing for the state of arizona." i throw it to you, joe. >> first of all, this was such a needle lesless battle that repus of arizona put on the front pages of papers nationwide. i say needless ba lesless becaut hard to believe that the supreme court would ever allow a law to be upheld that would let somebody that own as restaurant deny service to somebody because of their sexual orientation. for those who say, well, somebody should be able to do that based on their devout religious beliefs, do you then give -- because if you're going to allow somebody to not serve a customer based on their sexual

orientation because they see that as a sin, that then allows other restaurant owners in arizona to decide they're not going to serve someone who himself been divorced, like myself, or someone who has committed adultery, or if you want to really take it to its extremes, jesus said even lusting after a woman is the committing of adultery in your matter and you could go on and on and on. this is -- you could have restaurant owners denying service to 100% of the population any time they wanted. i don't think there's any way the supreme court of the united states would ever uphold this law and it's just an unnecessary fight brought up by some people who should probably refocus their efforts on other issues. and chuck todd, jan brewer may be -- some may think she's in a difficult position. i don't think she is. i think the tweet suggests that

she's going to veto this bill, which now even state senators who supported the bill originally are saying she should veto. >> our own reporting, people close to her have told us that she's leaning toward vetoing it. but what is she doing? why is she dragging this out? what was that tweet? why create drama around this? it funny, mika, i'm glad you brought up the martin luther king issue. arizona has this horrendous reputation as sort of the state that is just the last to accept social change. martin luther king day, immigration, now on gay rights. these people have been in the sun too long. maybe it's frying the head. >> look what it's done to the republican party. let's drive away blacks, hispanics, asians and young people and gays. >> these cranky retirees and

people on the witness protection program, that's who's left in arizona? >> republican senators from the state are saying don't do this. this almost comes down o a -- i mean, you're looking at putting a business in phoenix and this law goes into place, why would you do that? >> they're saying veto, veto. they know there would be a huge boyco boycott. >> you heard mitt romney yesterday saying this was a bad idea. this is bad for business and then they don't have to address the social stuff. to the point that joe was raising about the constitutionality of laws like this, he's exactly right. the property is considering a number of these issues that have to do with birth control and what not. cokie, you'll remember they did not want to integrate, they would expel couples who were interracial.

but there's a big difference and the supreme court, i think, would find a big difference between having the federal government compel religious institutions from pro siding abortions at their hospitals or contraception at their hospitals, which is something we've been battling. or even having, let's say, bob jones university hire somebody to work on their staff that is -- that is gay. there's a big difference between that and having -- and i think the court would find there's a big difference between that and having denny's restaurant in mesa be able to go up to somebody and say, hey, you're gay, get out of my restaurant. i want to make sure we don't blur the lines here. because religious institutions still, i mean, integration is one thing, segregation is one thing, but i think when you're talking about contraception, telling catholic hospitals that they must provide, that they'll be compelled to provide

contraception and the court is also going to look very accidentically on forcing churches to hire somebody that's gay if that does go against their church doctrine. again, that's different than, again, restaurants or hotels. go ahead, cokie. i'm sorry. >> what's happening, what some of the cases are that are before the court are people who are in private business saying it's against their own personal religion to provide contraception for their employees. that's very different from the religious institution. and that's one of the -- those cases are right now coming before the court. and i think that arizona bringing it -- having the whole state say that that's okay is going to make that even a more -- it's going to be even

more immediate for the courts. >> can we just go back? what is she waiting for? rip the band-aid off. sign it or veto it. dragging it out is helping nobody in this situation. >> and the tweet is so cryptic. >> bizarre. >> i thought todd's head was going to pop off when i read about the tweet. let's go to baton rouge, louisiana. we have the republican governor, governor bobby jindal. very, very good to have you on the show this morning. thank you. and that is the delay we have. >> good morning, thank you for having me. >> do you see it? thank you very much for being on the show. we have a one and a half second delay. i'm going to state my question and throw it right at you. yesterday we were talking about a meeting at the white house that was supposed to stress bipartisan thoughts.

i expressed my comments saying you were tone deaf to the moments and others said you were playing to the base. what is your response, sir? >> in america we don't have a king. and the reality is that house longs to the people. it's not just the president's residence. we have serious disagreements with the president and we're supposed to voice those disagreements. i think the democratic governors are not just upset by the fact i criticized the president but by the substance. you didn't hear much of a defense of why isn't the president doing more? he says he has the power of the opinion and of the phone and why isn't he doing more? a few of them agave to him at a personal but we just disagree.

i think we can do better than a minimum wage economy. i don't think it good to wave the white flag of surrender and say we can't do better than 2% economic growth in what is one of the weakest recoveries since the end of the second world war. >> yesterday you talked about waving the white flag of surrender. a lot of people wondered what you meant specifically. i understand what you're saying. why don't you talk to our viewers what that means. what you believe the -- in instead of what's he's pushing for, job, growth, opportunity. explain that. >> sure. the government's policy is a complete mess, whether it's higher taxes, more borrowing and it seems as though the white house has seized on the minimum wage debate and they're going to

seize on that. we have a 32-year record low in terms of people in the workforce, people are dropping out. unemployment was supposed to be at 5%, it's actually at 6.7%, if you count those who dropped out, it's over 10%. if the president was laser focused on providing good paying jobs, the keystone pipeline would have been exposed and i asked them specifically, we're all worried about monopolies, give credit to the and there is more the president can do. instead we have a larger government. 2% to 3% is not robust growth. we can do better than this.

his on policies, baum care, e n even, about raising the minimum wage, 500,000 jobs would disappear. we can do better as a country. i think the president has given up, he's focusing on campaign rhetoric. we could have had a substantive meeting and said, mr. president, here are specific things you can do where your pen and instead we get the same old rhetoric. i'm not really sorry for saying it but those -- the reality is the substance is more important. and by the way, some of the same democrats were vokally critical against president bush. i know democrats sometimes don't like the second amendment. i'm surprised instead of having a debate about the substance, they just act defended. but this is about the american

people, not about democrats and republicans. >> governor, you are mentioned the cbo and. >> where are you with the rate of -- maybe hooking it up with the rate of in, net neutral on that, would that be a proposal you could support? >> a couple of things. cbo gave a range of how many jobs that could be lost. look, i'm not ideologically opposed to ever raising minimum wage. when i was in congress, i voted to raise the minimum wage. i think we do need to help people that are working. my concern is that we're in such a weak economy right now, we don't need to be doing anything to discourage people from getting private sector jobs. i'm not saying never raise the minimum wage. this shouldn't be the president's total economic proposal and package.

gho, i don't think now is a good time to do it, as part of more robust economic recovery to raise the major, i'm what happened to the hope and change and the ambitious rhetoric of this president? now we're left with a minimum wage economy. republicans don't want folks living on the minimum wage. we want them to have good paying jobs. mr. president, approve the keystone pipeline. tens of thousands of good paying jobs, hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs according to many, many estimates. >> governor, i'm going to take it to mike barnicle but this minimum wage economy and the economy pushed, i think there might be other policies. mike barnicle, jump in. >> mr. governor, the last time the sen ses bureau checked the per capita income you were 47th

lowest in the united states, not all done under your watch. >> what have you done to -- >> well, we've cut taxes and have training. the president can't say all those things about the country. our economy has grown 50% faster than the national gdp, even since the national recession. our per capita income ranking now is the highest it's been in 80 years. the reality is in louisiana, our unemployment rate has been below the national average every single month during the national recession, during the last several years. we're right now -- objective economists are saying we're on the cusp of a manufacturing renaissance, the likes of which we haven't seen in development. we have economic problems worth

$50 billion. we've outperformed the and we're doing better in the country, highest incomes ever in our history, highest ranking in 80 years. economy is growing 50% faster than the national economy, record jobs and investments coming into the state. it's not rocket science. we cut taxes, cut governor spending and invested in with, p workforce training. we've also implemented school choice. against the president's own department of justice, we're fighting to give our people the ability to get a great education and get a great paying job. after 25 years of losing people through migration, we've had more people who have into the state rather than leave the state. so i think we are going. >> you're inexpublicly tied to what louisiana does. it does not have a state

mandated minimum wage. what is the message to your lawmakers if you have don't want to wait for the president? why don't you try to raise the minimum wage in your own state on your own and join 45 other states that have their own setting? >> well, look, again, as i said earlier, i'm not ideologically opposed to ever raising maej, i just don't think now is the right moment when you've got a record low -- if you count on the people who have dropped out, if we had a normal par 'tis situation rate in our economy, the unemployment would be over 10%. we don't need to be doing things that make it harder for people to go to work. when i talk about the president's minimum wage economy, it seems he's comfortable pursuing policies that expand the number of people on governor-run programs. our message would be let's create good paying jobs and

there and there are things the president could do, even without congress. if he looked at those ten recommendatio recommendations, he could create millions of good paying jobs for feel of louisiana and across the country. >> bobby, we've been seeing over the past couple of weeks, a lot of people watching and on the set may disagree with it but i think we can probably agree we've seen cbo reports telling us why the policies that the policy is pursuing, one actually causes jobs. and the debate is going to be how many and encourage emto stay home because of the way the benefit structure is set out. that's in their best long-term interest for themselves and their family and then you have the same debate about minimum wage, which doesn't go from the corporations to struggling

americans. it's as charles krauthammer says, you're talking about a redistribution from a group of americans to another group of americans. just explain again very briefly about what republicans think and what conservatives think we should be doing instead of debating policies that the cbo says will cost americans jobs. what do we do moving forward to pull middle class americans and working-class americans back into a position where they're not falling further behind every year? >> that's exactly right. the middle class has fared very poorly under the obama policies. these policies discourage work and support inequality. in terms of what we can can do differently, a domestic energy renaissance will create good manufacturing, paying industries

in the steel and fertilizingtory. if we rain in the epa, if we there's a bill to do that in the house. there are things we can do to create a robust private sector economy, instead of making more people dependent on the government. it seems like america has given up. america can do better. >> bobby jindal, thank you so much. appreciate you being here and look forward to seeing you very soon. >> hey, chuck todd, i think it's fascinating, as you know there have been times over the past four, five, six, seven, even eight years that i haven't liked the position that the republican party has been in. i haven't liked under george w. bush, i thought we were spending too much, i thought our foreign policy was scattered. i think it's fascinating that democrats now are very

comfortable debating what they're debating, whether it's minimum wage or the cbo reports on the president's health care act and yet on the other side, i'm very comfortable as a conservative with my party now having this debate. i mean, it seems to me that we are actually moving to pretty big philosophical debates about big differences between what a republican stands for and what a democrat stands for. i think we may actually have an election that matters this fall. >> on economic policy, i agree with you. but look at the conversation we just had about social policy and what's going on in arizona. and that -- if this is -- in the perfect world of high-minded debate i'm with you on the economic, but i think we know particularly on the democratic side, they think they're -- the way they win some of these races is actually to do with terry mcauliffe. you might go on the stump and talk about the economy but in

your pay political advertising, you're using wedge issues on social issues. i'm with you on economic and i think it's a clear contrast but i think social issues quietly are still sort of the underbelly and will be the issues that decide these races. >> and republicans have to be careful on that issue. they weren't careful in arizona, mika. but i think what's fascinating again is bobby comes on and there's no doubt half of our viewers disagree with what bobby and i say, to the core of their existence they think we're wrong. the other half probably agree with us. and i think you've got -- you and i disagree on these issues, but that's what politics should be about. that's what debate should be about. i think we could have a great debate on what republicans and democrats stand for. as chuck said on economic issues

moving forward, i think the public needs to have that debate and i personally am comfortable as a republican with having that debate. >> well, it's what our show's about, that's for sure. >> chuck, can you stay with us? i'm scared i'm going to get beat up. >> no, i'm serious. no, i'm scared. >> i'm curious you didn't get papa on here. >> ow! >> and former congresswoman will join us and we'll be right back. to steam cleaners and keyboard vacuums. to microfiber cloths that leave no speck behind. yes, staples has everything you need for a germaphobe-friendly office... [ sneezes, coughs ] except germ-free coworkers. [ retches ]

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oh, lovely. a live look at washington on this beautiful, beautiful day. joining us now -- it's just awful. >> senior fellow at the atlantic counsel, i aan brzezinski joins

us. he's a republican. >> and director and ceo of the woodrow wilson center for scholars, jane harman. chuck todd and cokie roberts with us. we brought ian in on ukraine because he has specific knowledge of the country having lived there but he doesn't agree with everybody on what needs to be done. would you like to begin? >> yeah. it's great to have a brzezinski on who is not going to call me stunningly superficial out of the gate. >> give him a chance. >> yeah, i haven't given him a chance yet. a lot of policy makers are looking what's happening offer in ukraine and asking what can we do and a lot of politicians throwing their arms up in the air and saying we can't do anything. what are our options in the country?

>> what we have in ukraine is a powerful, courageous and inspirational expression of the people's desire to become part of europe, to become part of a community of democracies. and the united states should stand -- the european union should stand firmly behind that information desire. the things we can do is, one, support the efforts under way to develop a national unity government over there, one that brings to the table expertise but is also a clear break from the past two decades of cronyism and corruption. that's what the ukrainian people are telling us they need. the second thing we can do is help with financing packages and help provide reform. a third element would be for the european union to clearly articulate a commitment to move

forward when ukraine is ready with the agreement it is had on the table, association agreement and deep and comprehensive free trade agreement but th-- but finally the west has to signal a willingness to work with russia and clearly signal to russia that any effort to ukraine, if -- will proundly affect getting to that goal. >> and what are some of the long and short-term goals of getting to that? >> i have to absolute the work of john dinkle. he taught me and others how to win and how to lose. he and debbie is one of the

longstanding love affairs in this town, which is a tough town. >> that's nice. >> i actually think so far, although it's been very messy, ukraine is a good news story. look at the opposition leaders guarding those opulent palaces of yanukovych. what an impressive thing. there's been no looting and no rioting since he left. i think ian's basically right. the comment i'd make, though, is the ukrainians, at least according to the scholars, they don't want us or the emt urmt let me throw something at you that i threw at jay carney the other day in the press conferences. when we have these disputes with putin, when we're threatening sanctions, it's always against sear yashs against iran. it was against ukraine we were

developing potential sanctions at the time. at what point do we start confronting russia and maybe threatening -- i mean, all we've done with russia, you know, they say we don't want to have a cold war back and forth negotiation. okay. but all we've done with russia in the last five years is is help them get into the wto, help them get into the world economy, help them be treated as a super power with a reset. it all carrots, no sticks. at what point -- >> great olympic games. >> yeah. what point should the -- when russia was politically coercing ukraine, the was hosting the prime minister of russia here and embarking upon of all things a new trade agreement.

a week later in december was russia was squeezing ukraine on gas and oil, we had the minister of energy signing an energy cooperation agreement. recently the administration has come out and warned russia to keep its hands off ukraine. >> she used very strong language but -- >> there will be consequences for rich's -- talking about keeping russia out of the ocd, which is would want. i can't understand why we're doing. >> they're going to host a meeting. they're not just having it, they're hosting it. >> i agree. we should be tougher. the reset in russia hasn't worked and russia's behavior in syria is terrible, supporting bashar al assad. i'm agreeing with you and chuck.

the goal here should be a community of nations who are on the same page. actually, woodrow wilson -- >> there's been nothing but here. there's been no shame. >> joe wants to jump in. please. >> i want to thank you for coming. can i ask you in closing what was it like growing up an oppressed person in the brzezinski household, what was that like? >> i know what it's like to stand alone for profound values. >> oh -- >> it's a great experience. the debates we have in our family make you stronger and sharper. >> all havei have to say is mik rules. >> we all agree with that. >> thank you.

that was a great segment. did you get any deer this season? >> i got a nice big buck this year, i was lucky. >> you didn't get it on the side of the road? >> no, i think the road kill days are over. >> ian brzezinski and former congresswoman harman, thank you very much for being here. >> coming up, andrea mitchell has a live interview with secretary of state john kerry and later, tom brokaw's interview with angelina jolie, how she plans to bring the story of olympian to war war hero back to life. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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coming up, michio kaku, what he is predicting about future of the human mind. aflac. ♪ aflac, aflac, aflac! ♪ [ both sigh ] ♪ ugh! ♪ you told me he was good, dude. yeah he stinks at golf. but he was great at getting my claim paid fast. how fast? mine got paid in 4 days. wow. that's awesome. is that legal? big fat no.

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csx. how tomorrow moves. what a day. can't wait til tomorrow. i had this terrible thought. like are these feelings even real or are they just programming? and that idea really hurts. and then i get angry at myself for even having pain. what a sad trick. >> you feel real. >> thank you, theodore. >> that was a clip from the

oscar-nominated film "her," which explains the relationship between a man and an operating system that has a mind of its own. here is the professor of theoretical physics at the city university of new york, dr. michio kaku. he's the author of "the future of the mind." it's amazing the question scarlet johansson posing is it real or programming? explain to us where we are with the brain. >> remember "total recall" where memories were put on the mind? we're on the brink, the threshold of initiating all these wonderful things. think about it, telepathy,

reading minds, telekinesis, moving things with the mind, these are things that are going to be done tomorrow, not today. >> it seems as if the human experience is totally lost to then this technology that takes over control. so what is our fail safe as we continue to explore and continue to learn? is there a fail safe to protect us from our own advances? >> when you watch movies such as "irobot," you think robots are going to put us in zoos and throw peanuts at us. >> right. >> what we're beginning to do is understand our own brain, not a robot brain but our own brain. we're beginning to understand why we have super geniuses who

can do fantastic mathematical problems in their head and using your thoughts to energize machines. so that the mind is not going to be replaced. the mind will be interfacing with machines, controlling machines mentally. >> so for generations we have probably known more about the moon or mars than we have known about the brain. so as you skim through this incredibly important and really interesting book, what are the -- what's going to happen? what's the impact of all of this research, all of this study on things like asperger's, what's going to happen? >> president obama had pledge ed over $1 billion, with a "b," not an "m," on the next big thing after the human genome project and that is the brain

initiative, to sequence and map the entire human brain. think about it, we'll understand what is schizophrenia, bipolar. farther down is lane is having a brain pacemaker for things like alzheimer's disease. why not create memories for things that are useful for people with alzheimer's. the first memory was inserted into a mouth last year. that's how path breaking and how fast this is moving. think about this, if we have a memory on a disc inserted on it, it will live after you die. perhaps some of you will live forever, your memories, your personality, your goals, your dreams will live in a computer. and perhaps your great, great, great, great grand kids will have a conversation with you long after you're dead.

>> it's very interesting. doctor, i want to send you to cokie roberts, our panel at nbc, with a question. >> doctors, those of you of our age want to know about this memory pill that you talk about in the book, please. >> we are creating forgetful pills for now, not later. there are many instances where people get hit on the let side of their head and become a super mathematical genius. this is something right out of the comic books but it's well documented.

>> people suffer epileptic seizures, brain seizures, what's with that? >> part of the brain is overactive that lights up. we can put a probe directly into that part of the brain and nullify it. brain scans reveal that certain parts of the brain again are overactive by putting tiny little needles into the brain painlessly. you can quiet that area and i think videotapes, where a person is suicidal one instant and tres vigor coming into that person's face. it's amazing what you can do, because we're now unraveling the human thinking process. >> it's incredible advances. great to have you me. it's called "the future of the minute." read an excerpt on our site,

mojoe.msnbc.com. thank you. i will be hitting myself in the break on the left side to enhance my genius level. "morning joe" is back after this. (vo) you are a business pro. seeker of the sublime. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro.

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up next, vice president joe biden talks 2016. will he take on hillary clinton

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good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the west coast, as you take a live look at washington, d.c. with us on set, we have jeremy peters, julie pace, cokie roberts and al hunt. and in new york, willie geist, mike barnicle and thomas roberts. so you heard joe biden. he was touting his basketball skills. despite being a white boy, biden was speaking at a reception marking black history month. he was referencing former nba star and sacramento mayor kevin johnson. so while we're on the topic of the vice president, he was also in new york -- i believe it was yesterday -- and he sat down with the ladies of "the view" to talk about his future political ambitions. >> ask you about the power that you have and may have in the future. i do not expect you to come on this program and announce that you're going to run for

president. i won't object if you want to. do you want to? >> i tell you what, make you a deal, if you stick around, i will announce my decision with you. >> oh. oh. >> i'm not sure that's -- if hillary does not run, will you -- you have said if she runs for president, you will not run. >> no, i haven't. >> okay, tell me what you've said. >> the only reason to run for president of the united states, if you truly believe you're in a better position to do what you think is most needed in a country. whether she runs or not will not affect my decision. >> okay, cokie and al? >> i love joe biden. >> i love joe biden. >> but it's dead wrong. if hillary clinton runs, 10-to-1 he does not run. if hillary clinton does not run and his health is good, i don't know, 4-to-1 that he does run. >> yeah, i think he's dying to run, and so he's just waiting to see what happens. >> right. >> i think he's very eager to

run. >> mike barnicle? >> you're talking about the greatest vice president in the history of civilization, right? joe biden. we love joe biden. i agree with the blend of what al and cokie just said. i think the vice president really would like and enjoy and be very happy running for president of the united states. he's obviously going to be tempered by what hillary clinton chooses to do in a numbers -- in the fund-raising ability and things like that. i bet he would like to run. the odds are he will not run if and when hillary clinton does announce. >> don't you get the sense watching joe biden talk about the possibility that he will run, behind that big smile, that he resents a little bit the idea that it's a foregone conclusion that hillary clinton would be the nominee for democrat? he's saying in his own way, "hey, man, i'm vice president, i should get a shot at this thing if i want it." >> anyone see what i've been doing, julie pace? >> sure, i think it's this unusual situation where you have a sitting vice president who is not the clear front-runner for the nomination.

but the thing we also have to remember about what joe biden is doing here, if you're a vice president in a second term and you're not talking about possibly running for president, then you're basically irrelevant. so there's some strategy here to keep him in the spotlight. >> he has been especially effective, has he not, jeremy, working with congress? >> well, he's certainly been barack obama's dealmaker on capitol hill. not this year. >> not that there are any -- >> yeah. [ laughter ] >> -- and the last big won he attempted to negotiate over gun control, of course, fell apart. but certainly he has played that role in the past. and has been pretty effective. >> he's been the guy that's actually gone there, let's put it that way. >> the main player for the administration in ukraine, talked to yanukovych nine times in three months. >> good point. maybe he can find him now. >> or get congress to disappear. >> that would be better. >> all right. well, we've definitely squeezed that one for what it's worth. i'll tell you, i think that he's

underestimated in some ways because his jovial personality, his great sense of humor. but he's been a player for decades. >> that's absolutely right. he absolutely has been. and you're right, if he were sitting here with us, we'd all be having a good time with him. >> yeah. >> and that is his strength and in some ways his weakness. >> yeah. >> because it is harder to ju just -- >> really could argue, though, that washington needs someone you want to hang out with. >> and there's no one in washington you'd rather have a beer with than joe biden. even though he doesn't drink beer. >> if need be, he would. one record about his basketball player, i don't know how good of basketball player is. this is my one bit of reporting. he has a granddaughter who is a fabulous basketball player, plays at sidwell. >> fantastic. all right. there you go. now to the other big story. well, here we go. afghanistan. "the new york times" describes the relationship between president obama and afghan

president hamid karzai is for all intents and purposes over. in their first conversation since june of last year, president obama told the afghan leader that the u.s. military is now preparing for a full withdrawal of american forces by the end of 2014. the so-called zero option reflects white house frustration with karzai's refusal to sign a long-term security agreement. the pentagon has been pushing to leave a residual force behind, an option president obama would support. but that will now depend on whether president karzai's successor signs on to the security pact. elections are scheduled to take place in april. and, julie, the issue here, depending on what they do, will be getting all of the infrastructure out, which will take two years, at least. >> and the longer you wait to make the ultimate decision -- whether it's a full withdrawal, whether it's drawing down to 10,000, 3,000 -- the riskier it becomes, and the more expensive.

that's factored into the decision. there's a slight difference between the pentagon and the white house, at least some people in the white house. the pentagon strongly supports keeping about 10,000 troops in afghanistan. some people in the white house, though, particularly political advisors, look at this situation and say -- >> it's futile. >> it's futile. why are we spending so much time and effort keeping troops in a country where we're not even sure they want us there. >> well, because there are all kinds of reasons to not pull out. all of the history is a big one. and then, there's the question of what the society becomes if we just cut and run, and particularly for women, exactly. and that has been something that we have made all kinds of efforts to try to make the lives of women of afghanistan and girls of afghanistan better, and to protect them as the taliban tries to take back over. and so, i think to just completely cut and run just absolutely plays into the perception that you can't trust

americans to stay and do what we've -- >> we've been there a long time. having said that, it would unravel -- >> i agree with cokie. here's the complication. obviously, karzai is just totally, completely unreliable. but there'll be an election in april. it's not at all clear that that will be a clear-cut election. it's not clear that we might go with six, seven months with uncertainty, which makes it impossible to negotiate a pact to stay. so clearly a terrible situation. >> mike barnicle, jump in. >> the phrase cut-and-run, we have done anything but cut-and-run. we have been in afghanistan for 12 years. we have lost enormous amounts of our blood, more amounts of our treasure. we are dealing with a corrupt maeg m megalomaniac, and it might be time now for the president of the united states to answer the question, what are we still

doing there? >> well, that is the question, i think, at this point. joe scarborough, given the fact that we're talking about a full withdrawal by 2014, what do you make of the fact that the relationship has broken down so badly? >> well, the relationship was broken down four years ago. four years ago, karzai said he was open to balancing to the taliban side. this guy has never been a reliable leader. we said it in realtime in 2009 when the generals were asking the president to triple number of troops. of course, bob gates talked about it at length in his book, and you can go back through and see how that went down. you know, nobody around the table, our table in 2009, could explain why we were staying in afghanistan. if you talked to every policy leader -- i remember richard holbrooke coming on, and on camera he would say one thing, and off camera, he would say it was hopeless. on camera, he would say, we

can't cut and run. we can't leave afghanistan. you would always ask these leaders why we couldn't leave afghanistan. they would never say, because of afghanistan. they would say, because of pakistan. i mean, this has been a failed policy for the past three, four years. george w. bush didn't pay enough attention to afghanistan at a time that we really could make a difference. but that time past in 2009, 2010, we tripled the number of troops, we poured in $2 billion a week every week. al qaeda, the face of al qaeda in 2014, is radically different than it was in 2001 when it needed the caves of afghanistan to project its terror across the globe. it's time for america to come home. in fact, it was time for us to come home four years ago. >> it makes sense. and i think, al, what we're looking at are a couple of decisions that the president has to make and stick to. what are the chances, though, things unravel and we go back to sort of this status quo, which

is just -- seems to be a permanent presence? >> well, i don't think there'll be a permanent presence. the reason i agreed with cokie earlier, you need a transition period of sorts. i don't disagree with much of anything that joe has said. >> no, no. >> i'm not trying to hit both sides here. i do think, having done what we did, whether it was right or not, to suddenly leaves, creates all sorts of complications there. i'm not optimistic that staying will produce a good outcome -- >> al, help me out there, suddenly leaving? we've been there since 2001. there are kids that weren't even in kindergarten that are now being shot at in afghanistan. define accoucutting and running define suddenly leaving. >> joe, i don't think it's cutting and running. i'm talking about the question of leaving a residual force where you go to some sort of transition where hopefully afghans can run things. i doubt that will succeed. >> and to provide some security for the people who are there.

i mean, there are all kinds of development workers there, people trying to work in the community in ways that do bring people up so that terrorism is diminished, and to provide some security for those people makes a lot of sense. >> i guess those complications are why hamid karzai has some leverage, because it isn't as simple as getting out. >> right. >> which we all here know, but is there anybody at table in washington or new york who thinks we should stay? i don't think i can find anybody. >> one of the arguments for staying is to look at what happened in iraq, which is almost a mirror image of this. we were trying to reach a security agreement with iraq, trying to happen, and a full withdrawal, and obviously the situation in iraq has spiralled out of control. the question, though, is if you keep a residual force, how long do you keep them for? do you keep them for five years? dpos that make the situation any bet wher they eventually leave, if you keep a smaller force, does that do anything to protect civilians, to do counterterrorism, to train the

afghan forces? >> and can you protect those forces? those are all huge questions. you know, pakistan today is saying we pull out and civil war ensues. and maybe civil war happens anyway, but that is -- it's a mess. >> let's go to kentucky. the midterm elections are still months away, but democrats are not waiting to pull out big guns. former president bill clinton travelled to kentucky to help campaign for allison grimes. clinton was the last democrat to carry a state in the presidential election and is still popular in kentucky with close political ties to allison's father, jerry. here me is introducing the former president. >> i will tell you when we first learned at the beginning of this month that the president would be able to be here in kentucky, this month, we were worried, how in the heck in two weeks would we be able to reach out across

the commonwealth? how would we be able to fill hundreds of seats, especially for a luncheon? but as i look out today at this standing room only, soldout crowd -- [ cheers and applause ] -- i think -- i think it goes without saying that kentucky is clinton country! >> okay, joe -- [ laughter ] stop it. i just -- yeah, take it. just take it. i'm just down the line, the report reporter journalist today. >> i think what's funny, is she's talking about the drawing power of a guy who was president, what, 12 years ago,

however long ago. >> unbelievable. >> and yet the sitting president is not welcome in her state. >> stop it. >> based on -- no, she doesn't want him there. she was asked by a reporter a couple of weeks ago about having barack obama come to kentucky. she said, oh, we don't need to have -- i don't need somebody else to come vouch for me. >> it was kasie. she said it to kasie. and i think kasie was goading her into thinking it. >> does it show a problem that the obama administration has not only -- we've been talking about arkansas, louisiana, north carolina, you can add kentucky. cokie roberts, traditionally a swing state. i've always seen kentucky as a swing state. bill clinton carried it a couple of times. it's fascinating that barack obama is not welcomed there and bill clinton get as hero's welcome. >> well, it has been a swing state, and actually, mitch mcconnell, when he was asked

about clinton showing up for his opponent cited the fact that he won in the same years that clinton won. you know, it's also been a split-ticket state. and i think that we know president obama is not popular in these southern states. i mean, he's got the base of the democratic party, but he does not have swing voters, and she's got to have those swing voters if she has any hope of winning in kentucky. >> al hunt, there's certain politicians that just always seem to win elections regardless of what people say about them for five and a half years. >> mitch mcconnell is one of those. >> -- politicians in different parties right now. mitch mcconnell is one of those. and the second is mary landrieu, who i always joke wins by 13 1/2 votes every six years. republicans think for five and a half years they're going to vote mary, and mary always ends up winning. democrats think the same thing about mitch mcconnell.

what is it about -- let as you talk about mitch, since that's the race. what is it about that guy that makes him so tough, where he doesn't seem like a natural cultural fit. >> he's enormously unpopular. he's around richard nixon territory. he is the toughest politician around. he will spend gobs of money. he's relentless, he will attack. i think it's possible his luck runs out, his charm. charm of mitch mcconnell, you don't usually associate with one another. he has a double whammy. the primary will soften him up, and he'll have a tough time in a general. i also don't think kentucky is a swing state anymore. those cultural states, culturally conservative states -- west virginia, tennessee, kentucky, arkansas -- bubba carried them all. they're all in the -- really all republican states. it's virginia and florida, and north carolina are the swing states. >> i don't know that democrats expect to win kentucky back. we'll see how things progress. there are certainly questions about how qualified the

candidate grimes is. but when push comes to shove, i wouldn't be surprised to see them putting resources elsewhere. >> the room was packed. 1,200 people. president clinton spoke off the cuff for about 30 minutes. about grimes' policies, as he took aim at mitch mcconnell over his opposition to obamacare. >> you know what, in a sane environment do when they have problems with a good objective in they fix the problems. the other choice is to just pout if you're not in the white -- if your party is not in the white house, and make as many problems as you can, stop anything good from happening. and if you can't stop it, at least bad-mouth it, and then when life being what it is and all of us being imperfect as we are, when there's a problem, do everything you can to make sure the problem is never fixed. it may work in an election get people all torn up, everybody mad all the time.

but it's a dumb way to run a country. >> let's bring in nbc news political reporter kasie hunt, who spent time in ken last week with all of the top candidates. she did a great piece for us, looking at the senate race. your take on the latest developments, including bill clinton being brought in. >> delivering a stem-winder, as usual. clinton was trying to, in that bite you just played, sort of lay out an argument that alison grimes could use as she tries to defend the policies in kentucky. and that's really what was hanging over all of this. she was clearly thrilled to have the former president. but if you want to listen to that comment that joe mention earlier, that she told us for our series, about whether or not she wanted to have obama in town, take a listen. >> you say that you're an independent thinker. i want to ask you about president barack obama. would you want him to come down and came pain for you? >> this race is about putting

the people of the state first. i speak for myself, and i don't need any other surrogate to do that. i stand in stark contrast to the president in many of his ideas and platforms. >> and she is not the only one that feels that way. harry reid was actually asked yesterday if democrat in colorado would welcome the president, and he said, well, we have one president who can go everyplace, and that's president clinton. >> okay, kasie, thank you very much. we look forward to more in your series. >> this is such a redemption for bill clinton, because, of course, in the 2000 election, al gore didn't want him campaigning for him. >> yeah. >> in '08, where hillary clinton didn't want him campaigning for her. so it is a comeback. >> it really is. he was chafing at the bit to get out there, and now everybody wants him. >> he does love -- he does love the process, willie geist. >> yeah, mika, i wanted to throw in this quote from "the new york times" account of clinton in

kentucky, the "times" wondering aloud, how difficult it might have been to get him to go to kentucky. paul says, getting bill clinton on the campaign trail is like force-feeding sugar to an ant. you don't have to ask him twice. >> i love it. >> he enjoys this. >> perfect. >> this is his own former aide. >> right. >> he would say that. >> -- the obama white house, someone who's not chomping at the bit is barack obama. if he thinks that he can win democratic seats or hold democratic seats by not being out there, he's okay with that. >> he's told democrats that. you can run as far away from me as you need to, and i won't get in your way. i won't expect to be invited. >> -- this cycle in a presidency, usually they're not very popular. george bush didn't go out. even clinton in '98. >> coming up on "morning joe," the clinton library is keeping its records sealed tight, but that could spark a challenge.

mike allen has it all in the "morning playbook." first, bill karins with a check of the forecast. >> yeah, just giving bad news after bad news day after day. it's time to change that. a big storm, exactly what they needed. we have two of them. one is moving in today. we already have rain on the radar. the green is the rain. and we're going to expect the rain in san francisco on and off throughout the day. it will continue to push up into the northern portions of the state. further to the south, not a lot of rain around fresno. and for this drought in the area. this could be a significant rain in l.a., in, like, three years. that's how bad it's been. we're talking 2 inches of rain. of course, we have the cold in the northern plains. as bad as it's been, and through the next seven days, the storm on the west coast has to move east. that's the way it works. it will move into the cold air and produce a snowstorm from the

ohio valley into the northeast. that's sunday into monday. haven't we had enough? we all know that answer. washington, d.c. in the snow. you're watching "morning joe." [ park sounds, sound of spray paint ] ♪ we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? $500,000. maybe half-million. say a million dollars. [ dan ] then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. ♪ i was trying to like pull it a little further. you know, i was trying to stretch it a little bit more. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. [ man ] i looked around at everybody else and i was like, "are you kidding me?" [ dan ] it's just human nature to focus on the here and now. so it's hard to imagine how much we'll need

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all right. let's take a look at the morning papers. from our parade of papers, "the san jose mercury news" asiana airlines will pay $500,000 in fines related to the crash in san francisco last july. federal officials say the airline failed to provide family

members of passengers with information in the days following the incident. some families did not hear from the company until five days after the crash. three people were killed. dozens injured when the plane hit a seawall as it tried to land. joe? and from the "usa today," general motors is expanding its massive recall. the company says an ignition switch defect in some of its smaller cars has led to 13 deaths. the latest models added to the recall are the saturn ions, the chevy hhr, the pontiac solstice and the saturn sky. nearly 1.4 million vehicles are now under recall. let's go to the "boston globe." good news in the battle against childhood obesity. over the last decade, obesity rates for preschool aged children dropped from 14% to 8%. that's pretty good. it's not all good news, though. more than one out of three adults still dangerously overweight in the u.s.

in addition, nearly one-third of americans under the age of 20 are obese. joe? and "the houston chronicle" former president george w. bush is getting his very own art exhibit. the george w. bush presidential center is going to be featuring more than two dozen never-before-seen paintings. >> what's that? >> bush started painting after he left the white house, and he's painted everything from family pets and landscapes to a portrait of jay leno. the exhibit is going to be opening in april. you know, mika, it's just -- it's fascinating that a lot of former leaders start painting. you go back through history. and george w. bush is one of them. >> it's really good. i was confused at the bathtub one. i didn't get to see it long enough. but these are really -- they're incredible, actually. >> yeah, no, it's -- no, i'm serious. a lot of people were laughing in the beginning. i'm looking forward to seeing them. >> yeah, absolutely.

"the san francisco chronicle" a couple in northern california found a pot of gold, get this, worth $10 million. >> at the end of a rainbow. >> look at this. the husband and wife stumbled upon more than 1,4 hin mid-19th century gold coins in eight cans under a tree on their property. >> wow. >> the uncirculated coins date back to the gold rush era and are in mint condition. >> oh, my gosh. >> experts call the discovery one of the greatest treasures ever uncovered in the u.s., and they've actually not given their address, because they're scared of more treasure hunters, but apparently they could use the money. it's amazing, willie. >> incredible. in a related story, barnicle just left to go dig around in his backyard. he's gone. >> beep, beep, beep, beep. >> a different reason for that. >> going down to politico. the chief white house correspondent is mike allen. he has a look at the "playbook." good morning.

>> good morning. >> we're talking about the clinton library. there are thousands of documents still sealed tight at the clinton library at little rock, more than a year after they should have been released, 12 years after the president leaves office, january 2013. that deadline came and went, and we still haven't seen the documents. how come? what is hillary clinton perhaps have to fear in this case? >> yeah, willie, these documents include advice that the president asked for communications between the president and the then first lady, and this poses some tough choices for both for president obama who, because these are federal documents, has some control over their release, and the clintons, who may not want to stir up a bunch of new scandals, some new embarrassments, new questions. but if they choose to keep blocking them, there'll be questions about whether they're too secretive. we'll get a peek at these. there's 33,000 of the documents that should have become

available 12 years after president clinton left office, so back in january 2013. politico's josh gerstein learned 23,000 of the documents have been cleared by the white house for release. they didn't say. when but sooner or later we'll see a bunch of the documents. there's another 8,000 of some of the president's most sensitive communications that are still being blocked, and both this president and the clintons are going to have to make tough calls about. >> yeah, joe, i guess the question, what's in the remaining 8,000 documents and will there be a court fight to get them out into the public? >> well, yeah, and my question is, and i don't know who knows around the table, but it seems to me the law is the law, and if it's supposed to be released 12 year later, what's the justification for the white house and the clintons not releasing these documents? >> well, joe, as you know, presidents have a lot of discretion over these documents, but president obama, when he was

running said he wanted to increase access to presidential documents, and that's why this makes it so tough for him. the clintons are going to want to avoid an ugly legal fight during a campaign -- >> but has the white house -- has the white house given any justification for going against the law, which says 12 years after the president leaves office, these papers are released? has there been any justification from the white house at all for this. >> they haven't. what they've said is we've cleared a bunch of them, but they haven't said why they're dragging their feet on the other tranche. >> thanks, mike. up next, tom brokaw sets down with angelina jolie bringing to the big screen the story of "unbroken." plus, $10 billion business. a look at the big money behind colorado's legal pot market. nbc's harry smith previews his new documentary ahead on "morning joe."

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so some are calling it one of the greatest american stories of the 20th century, and now angelina jolie is bringing the story to the big screen. she set down with nbc special correspondent tom brokaw to talk about the man at the center of the story "unbroken." >> reporter: this is one of those "only in hollywood" stories. >> hello?

hi. boo. oh, my god. i miss you. >> i love you. >> i miss you, honey. >> reporter: legendary world war ii hero louie and one of the most famous women in the world, angelina jolie, the hot new couple. >> what a man. >> reporter: he became famous almost 80 years ago, and then again when his phenomenal life story appeared in the big bestseller "unbroken." now 97, a young louie first one prominence during hitler's 1936 olympics. >> i've been studying history, and you're one of the few that met hitler. what did he say to you? >> the boy with the fast finish. that was it. and i couldn't really shake

hands, he was up high. so i reached up and touched his hand. >> reporter: that was one fleeting moment in a legendary american life. "unbroken" the film, will come to the big screen later this year, and angelina jolie is the director. >> you train. you fight harder than those other guys, and you win. >> reporter: just watching the two of you, i'll bet this is not just a filmmaker's journey for you. i mean, it's become really personal. >> very personal. >> reporter: because you've got the legacy of this amazing man in your hands and on the big screen. >> such a huge responsibility to get it right, because i love him so much, and because he's helped me so much in my life. >> reporter: during world war ii, louie's bomber was shot down in the pacific. 47 days in a bare raft, subjected to barbaric war crimes in the japanese p.o.w. camp. he was thought lost forever, declared dead, and now decades

later, he's here to see his life story brought to the screen by a hollywood superstar. did you find the book on your own, or did somebody send it to you? >> i wanted to direct something again, but i just wasn't sure what, and it had to be something i would love and care about, because it takes much more time away from your family and much more effort than acting. >> reporter: it might surprise you just how difficult it was even for angelina jolie to get a green light. >> this has been the hardest thing i ever done. i had all the hours of phone calls, and i made all these boards. i took my glue and tape, pictures off the internet, and i put all my boards in a garbage bag, and i carried them to universal myself and put them out, and i pitched my butt off. >> reporter: you want to send a message here, as well? >> for me, i think louie's been very clear about what his message is, and certainly the book. and i think for my children and for everybody, i want to be able to say it can seem dark and it

can seem hopeless and it can seen overwhelming, but the resilience and the strength of the human spirit is an extraordinary thing. >> reporter: when she finally got word she would direct the film "unbroken" she couldn't wait to meet louie. >> where is he? is he around? i think somebody said, he knows where you live. >> reporter: indeed, he did. as we said, only in hollywood. from louie's patio, you can literally see across to angelina's home. they were neighbors and never had a clue. louie, this was meant to be, because your girlfriend lives in the neighborhood. >> yeah, i can show you my roof from the window. i imagine that for the last ten something years he's been sitting there, having a coffee in the morning, and wondering who will make this movie. and i've been sitting in my room laying there thinking, what am i supposed to be doing with my life? i want to do something important. i want to connect. i need some help. i need some guidance. where is it? and it was right outside my window. >> pretty mazing when two worlds

collide like that. coming up next, what's driving today's market. brian sullivan has "business before the bell." "morning joe" back in a moment. discover card. hey! so i'm looking at my bill, and my fico® credit score's on here. yeah, you've got our discover it card, so you get your fico® score on your monthly statements now, for free! that's nice of you! it's a great way to stay on top of your credit, and make sure things look the way they should. awesomesauce! huh! my twin sister always says that.

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and the good queen showed the boy it could all be real. avo: whatever you can imagine, all in one place. expedia, find yours. welcome back, everybody. a quarter to 9:00 right now. "business before the bell" with cnbc's brian sullivan. and more trouble maybe on the horizon for bank of america. first, we have to say welcome back from sochi. i haven't seen you since your report. >> yeah, that's probably why you haven't seen me. >> but you survived. huh a great trip? >> we did. listen, it was fantastic to be a part of the crew. i saw geist and shactman. and a lot going on. the russian ds did a fantastic

job. everybody was bemoaning it, slamming russia, saying they wouldn't be ready. i wish we could have done better in speedskating, but hey, i haven't won a medal in anything, so who am i to criticize? >> to explain what's going on today, brian. >> you talked about bank of america, thomas. big story, in fact. there's two new investigations into bank of america. one regarding foreign exchange transactions. that's probably not as much interest to your audience as the next one, and that is mortgage practices. remember, jpmorgan had $13 billion settlement on the mortgage side. effectively, this is a similar investigation by the u.s. government into the handling of mortgage-backed securities, so bank of america saying it is part of the probe. you can see two new investigations, the mortgage one is the one that will get all of the attention now. so that's the story there. the government got the $13 billion settlement from jpm. we'll see if they're able to get a multibillion-dollar settlement from bank of america, and if they do, hopefully, some of the

money will go to those hardest hit, as opposed to simply the lawyers and regulators. we know the lawyers tend to get pai paid. separately, mortgage applications, and they were weak, ended fup 21st. they've dropped considerably. thomas, right now, everything we say on cnbc regarding home sales, car sales, retail sales, it's all framed with the weather. who's out looking for a home when one-third of the country is under a blanket of ice? you're just trying to stay ice. >> no, great point about the ripple effect. brian, i want to talk about bitcoin. i'm looking at the cover of "financial times" talking about the virtual currency and how one of the exchanges went dark. explain what this does to the actual concept, the trust, the value that people have in its future. >> well, this is the hurdle. i mean, if bitcoin can survive this, it should be more stable and longer lasting. the question is, will it? for all your viewers not

necessarily with bitcoin, digital currency, right? global in nature. one of the biggest exchanges -- we'll call it a bank, but we'll just use that from an analogy, mount gox, in tokyo, effectively shut down. it went offline. pooh emhave real money -- you buy bitcoins with real money, online, so effectively, it's like if you had cash in a bank and the bank shuts done and you can't get your cash, it tends to hit confidence. that's what's happening with bitcoin right now. "the last times" headline says it best, although maybe dramatic, calls into question the future of bitcoin. >> yeah, talking about the fact it deleted twitter history, pulled its website offline. brian sullivan, great to see you. welcome back fro sech chi. >> thank you. up next, the marijuana business is booming in colorado, and nbc's harry smith joins us with a new documentary on the economic impact of legalized pot. we welcome harry to the table here on "morning joe."

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♪ they're cranking out marijuana-infused marijuana candy bars. >> that's a lot of marijuana. >> this is a small portion.

we're going through right now 500 pounds a month. >> 500 a month? >> and we can't keep up. >> reporter: bob runs the company. today, his team is cooking up strawberry cough crunch bars. strawberries, white chocolate and 100 milligrams of pure hash oil in each and every bar. aren't you tempted to just make sure it tastes -- >> just to take the spoon and if there and go like that. about then i won't be very reliable at work. >> man oh, man, a clip from the brand-new cnbc special "marijuana in america." joining us with the preview, nbc news correspondent the great harry smith. harry, fantastic. we were looking at that, is that bubble gum? >> no. 40,000 a month, and they can't make enough -- they can't make them fast enough. >> amazing. >> we spent a week there shooting all day, five solid days, and i said to someone earlier today, how many times in your life do you actually get to see the genie come out of the

bottle? that's what this was like. every day was just one mind-boggling event after another. >> talk about the events. just go ahead, talk about what you saw and what we're going to see tonight. >> first things first. last week, end of last week, state of colorado comes out with new revenue projections for the coming fiscal year, so starting this coming summer and the year ahead, they think the marijuana business in colorado is going to be worth somewhere around $1 billion. that's one teenie-tiny state. $1 billion. extrapolate to the rest of the united states, from a business standpoint -- one of the things we show is an investor conference in las vegas. there's 150 guys in a room standing there saying, we're ready to make the bets. we're ready to make -- we want to get on the ground floor of this thing. >> and it's not cheech & chong, the image -- guys smoking joints -- >> there is that. we show a pot club in colorado

springs, for instance, where it looks like that old-fashioned guys with the bongs and everything else, but on the other end of that, one of the people we profile is a young soccer mom from denver who throws beautiful parties now in art galleries where they serve delicious hors d'oeuvres and you bring your own cannabis and have your glass of merlot and mary jane on the side. >> different marketing, trying to take away, as mike is talking brks the cheech & chong imagery of guys in baggy t-shirts -- >> they're there. this is making a giant leap beyond all of that. face $1 billion in sales. there aren't enough stoners in colorado to buy that much pot. >> what about the people that you ran into? you looked at the business side of thing, the customers -- >> all walks of life. all walks of life. we're in this one shop that's right on i-70 between the airport and downtown denver.

and we saw business guy after business guy come out and jump out of the cab, walk in, get the stuff, put it in a sealed bag, stick it in their check-in bag, not the carry-on, and off they go. it's theoretically illegal to take it out of the state, but believe me, there are a lot of tourists -- >> you didn't bring us boulder bark, no candy crunch -- no gifts today. we can watch it tonight on cnbc. we need to know these things. what, if anything, did we learn today? ent isn't the only return i'm looking forward to... for some, every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal.

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go. >> it's time now to talk about what we learned today. joe, what did you learn? >> mika, i learned a lot of things from the brzezinski household. an addition to the road kill story. can't wait to hear about it. secondly, ian brzezinski, we have yet another brzezinski brain out there that i think has some real li good ideas on how we move forward as a country on ukraine. >> i try to keep him under wraps, given he's a republican and all. >> of course, you do. >> here's what i learned today. cokie and i are going to get together, get in our pajamas, and do a viewing party of "d.c. housewives." cokie? >> that new japanese pitchers, fastball falls apart as 95 miles an hour. >> there you go.

julie pace. >> >> i learned the vice president is looking for a basketball league to join. >> thomas roberts? >> i just learned that you're cheating on me with another roberts, because you're supposed to do that for me with "new york housewives" with the slumber party. and the smart pill, i can't wait to read this book. >> barnicle? >> just as i was going to ask there kaku about the memory-enhancing pill, i forgot. >> okay, if it's way too early, it's time for "morning joe." now, it's time for "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. have a great day, everyone. the endless war may be coming to a sudden end. we'll have the latest on what top u.s. military leaders are saying on the ground in afghanistan as president obama plans to move forward with or without hamid karzai. also this morning, the tdr 50 rolls on. florida nobodious this week, and we're featuring an intervi